£82m-a-year ‘strategic assistance’ Betsi windfall

A HEALTH board in Special Measures for five and a half years has been guaranteed an £82m-a-year boost despite continued “poor performance”.

Health and social care minister Vaughan Gething announced the package of “strategic assistance” cash for Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board to the Senedd. He said the money, annually over the next three and a half years, would “enable the health board to reset and plan sustainably for the future”. The cash will be for:

■ Covering the deficit of up to £40 million a year

■ Funding to improve unscheduled care and build a sustainable planned care programme, including orthopaedics, of £30 million a year

■ £12 million a year to support performance improvement and implementation of the mental health strategy in partnership; and support to build broader capability and capacity in the organisation

Plaid Cymru MS Llyr Gruffydd said he welcomed anything that improves health for people in North Wales but the extra cash award sounded “wearily familiar”. Although the board had improved performance in maternity and out of hours services, it still needed to get better at: leadership and governance, managing finances, delivering mental health services and upgrading performance in acute medicine, he said.

Mr Gething praised the board’s response to Covid-19 and added it was time for a “different approach” to solving the board’s problems, which would be underpinned by the new funding. He said: “This will enable the health board to move away from shortterm actions and make progress on medium and longer term planning.”

Llyr Gruffydd said: “More money being thrown at senior management, more planning for the future, more reports.

“Going into special measures should have meant immediate steps to transform the health board and I have to wonder whether the health minister is willing to accept there has been a failure to address the root causes over the past five years.

“We need a radical shake-up of our health board. Staff are over-stretched and have been let down by a culture that has often turned to expensive management consultants to provide slick reports but little of substance to turn round problem services.

“Funding has been squandered due to a lack of long-term planning to recruit, retain and train many hundreds more doctors, nurses and other health professionals.

“With that in mind, I’m disappointed the promise of further money is not being matched with an insistence that deep managerial and structural changes are needed.”

Betsi Cadwaladr chairman Mark Polin and acting chief executive Gill Harris said they welcomed the funding. In a joint statement they said the money would help the board “build on work” developing “transformational, long-term, sustainable solutions” to problems. They added: “It will also allow us to progress ambitious plans to improve patient experience and waiting times.

“We intend to build more capacity to help us to tackle long waiting lists and ease pressure on our district general hospitals and our plans include the establishment of diagnostic and treatment centres. We will also drive forward the business case for a North Wales Medical and Health Science School.

“We remain committed to working with partners and the public across North Wales on the reshaping of our services.”